Yamato "Captain's sword"

[Kolekt-To]

I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity yesterday to meet with a long-time sword collector who is well-known within the Japanese sword collecting world. The man has been collecting for over 40 years, knows his stuff, and has solid connections within our hobby. I will refer to him as my "Mentor". He will be at the SF Token Kai next weekend and will have swords on display and for sale. As a newbie, who only began collecting this year, I am very grateful for the meeting as I gained so much information and greatly benefitted from this man's knowledge and expertise. I brought half my collection to him for evaluation and I'll say it was, indeed, a humbling experience. He provided me with a knowledgeable assessment of my swords - there was a fair amount of disappointment related to some of my purchases, but I also had an unknown gem among my swords (one of my swords has a 350 year-old blade and I was not aware of this until my mentor read the tang and consulted his Hawley book to confirm). The guy definitely has set me straight when it comes to collecting, and I'm now on a new course with my collecting goals. Glad I met with him before I got too far into this hobby! In addition to evaluating half of my collection, he showed me some of the swords in his collection. I was amazed and impressed! He had at least one Gassan Sadakazu sword and some from Minotagawa shrine smiths. He had high-class guntos and old, immaculate Nihonto from various sword periods. I was able to handle these swords and observe them close up. Attached are photos of a Minotagawa sword made by Masataka that was one of the swords that belonged to the Captain of the battleship Yamato that was sunk during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 - obviously the captain did not have this particular sword with him at the time as he went down with the ship. So, it was a fantastic 3 hours I spent with my mentor and we'll be moving forward with him continuing do so sword evaluations for me and even some repairs (he's got years of experience and a workshop with all the tools). I'm very grateful for the experience!

[Brian]

In Nihonto collecting, I think there is nothing as valuable and encouraging as a true mentor.
Lucky guy.

[Volker62]

Finding a truley honest mentoris more than priceless to a new collector!

 

very very big thanks to my two Mentors, both of whom unfortunately passed away......

 

my experience with my 2 "self-proclaimed student, whom I have initiated into everything is a real tragedy!

 

 

"YOU DON'T THANK FOR TRUST,YOU RETURN IT!

[Volker62]

sorry writing error

 

not 2 students, thank God only one!

[Kolekt-To]

10 hours ago, Brian said:

In Nihonto collecting, I think there is nothing as valuable and encouraging as a true mentor.
Lucky guy.

Thank you Brian and Volker. As a newbie, I really appreciate your comments. My thinking in regard to this hobby was transformed in the course of a few hours.

[Kolekt-To]

One more photo of the Captain's sword ("Masataka" - Minotagawa shrine smith - blade in Type 97 mounts). Such a beautiful blade!

[PNSSHOGUN]

The Mei doesn't look quite right on this one, is it papered? 

[IJASWORDS]

WOW! Nice sword! Looks like it was made yesterday, it is so good! What provenance did you see relating to the Captain's ownership? Did you photograph that?  

[Kolekt-To]

Hey guys, remember I'm a newbie here. Lol. I'm going off what my mentor told me - I trust the guy and know that he has a solid reputation in the collector community. I'm not sure if this sword is papered or not. He told me that he has swords that are papered (probably some of the ones that I saw and handled last weekend were papered) and that he has several swords in Japan that are waiting to be papered. He told me that one has already been papered and is "Juyo" status, and that it will be more months ahead before he receives those swords back from Japan. As the relationship develops, I expect to learn a lot more and that more will be revealed. And, though I was witness to some great swords, I saw only part of his collection. Currently, I'm not even aware of all the questions I should, or could, be asking. I'm at that stage where I'm just happy that someone with a lot of knowledge and experience is sharing their wisdom with me in person, and that he's helping steer me in the right direction so I can reduce my risk of making costly mistakes. I'm confident that I will be made aware of more details about his collection we proceed. I did ask him how he acquired that particular Minotagawa sword (remember that he has several in his collection that I'm aware of) and he told me that he got it through a contact (in Japan, if I remember correctly), but did not reveal the name of the source - and I wasn't going to pressure him for the name of the source (we just met, and I need to be respectful and develop a trusting relationship with the man). No doubt I'll be posting more great photos of swords from his collection in the future, and I will try to ask the right questions and get more information about the swords. I hope to post photos of swords that I can be proud of from my collection, too. Currently, I've got mostly low-grade showato, but I'm shifting gears and seeing the value in aiming higher. 

[ChrisW]

You might reach out to Brian Quinn, president of the JSSUS, who is a resident in the area.

[Volker62]

Hi Geoff

 

In my insignificant opinion, the signature and also that kikusui over the signature of the Masataka  looks good.

 

 

 

A long time fellow from collector from New York, who sadly passed away has written a fine booklet, named "Gendaito made at the Minatogawa shrine"

 

Maybe you compare the signature...

[Bruce Pennington]

Geoff,

For my files, could I get clear close-ups of the kikusui on both the blade and the habaki?  Thanks!

[mecox]

Geoff, in the article on Japanese Naval Swords (part 1) in the NMB Downloads there is a summary on the Minatogawa Shrine forge and also of Masataka.  Will give you some background. 

[Stephen]

So who is this mentor? Or did i miss it?

[Volker62]

Stephen

 

 

life  punishes those, who come too late....

 

 

 

wisdom of the ages.

[Bryce]

G'day Neil,

The Captain's name Kōsaku Aruga is engraved on the nakago.

Cheers,

Bryce

 

 

[paul griff]

 Lucky opportunity for you Geoff and a fantastic sword....thanks for sharing..

Regards,

              Paul..

[Stephen]

Jokers everywhere..

[Bruce Pennington]

He didn’t say.

[Brian]

I think that is best left unsaid unless this mentor wants his name mentioned.

[Bruce Pennington]

I agree.

[Stephen]

Was PMd his name, lucky student... congrats on doing it the right way 

[Sam Smith]

Hello everyone, today I came across this post by chance. If it violates any rules, please let me know or remove it. The following are my views.

This sword is a fake that appeared on Yahoo Japan a few years ago. First, based on the inscription, the original owner only became the captain of the battleship Yamato in 1944. It is impossible for him to have foreseen this in 1942. Second, I checked some archived websites and found other fake Kikusui swords on Yahoo Japan between 2017 and 2019. They all have a similar style and format. Finally, I am not an expert on Kikusui swords, and there may be some mistakes in my research. Here, I will post the pictures I found and a link to a Japanese blog that questions the authenticity of these swords (the blog does mention a possible original selling link for this sword, but I cannot access it). I welcome any experts to join the discussion. I apologize for any disturbance.

SAM

 

https://ameblo.jp/ku...try-12729097877.html

平成最後の特別出品！！約半世紀ぶりに戻ってきた幻の名刀！！菊水刀！戦艦大和最後の艦長『有賀幸作』佩刀！！『(菊水紋)湊川神社正孝』 の落札情報詳細

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

8 hours ago, Sam Smith said:

the original owner only became the captain of the battleship Yamato in 1944.

That fact alone, would put all these in question.  Originally, John, PNSSHOGUN, was concerned about the authenticity of the mei.  

 

We have seen a number of blades coming out of Japan that were likely originally mumei and had fake mei added.  These could fall into that category.

 

Is it possible they were all minitogawa blades that had the fake Captain inscription added recently?

[Sam Smith]

1 hour ago, Bruce Pennington said:

That fact alone, would put all these in question.  Originally, John, PNSSHOGUN, was concerned about the authenticity of the mei.  

 

We have seen a number of blades coming out of Japan that were likely originally mumei and had fake mei added.  These could fall into that category.

 

Is it possible they were all minitogawa blades that had the fake Captain inscription added recently?

In my opinion, the likelihood is not very high. Judging from the inscriptions themselves, they appear to be the work of the same person. Given the prevalence of forgeries during that period, this one is probably also among them.

[KungFooey]

This looks a remarkably similar scam to the sword I recently flagged up which claims to be made for Hideki Tojo by Yasutoku, one of the top Yasukunitosho.

It sold for on Yahoo for nearly $6K despite having the following, obvious red flags:

Obviously gimei when compared to other Yasutoku mei.
Made Showa 19, so 1944 - even though Yasutoku left the shrine in 1940. 
Entirely wrong yasurime.

Yahoo!オークション - 九八式軍刀　靖徳　長さ62....

[Sam Smith]

53 minutes ago, KungFooey said:

这看起来与我最近标记的那把剑非常相似，这把剑声称是由顶级 Yasukunitosho 之一 Yasukunitosho 的 Yasudoku 为 Hideki Tojo 制造的。

它在雅虎上以近 6 美元的价格售出，尽管存在以下明显的危险信号：

显然，与其他 Yasutoku mei 相比，gimei 是 gimei。
制作了昭和 19 年，所以 1944 年 - 尽管安德在 1940 年离开了神社。
完全错误的 yasurime。

 

Yahoo!オークション - 九八式軍刀　靖徳　長さ62....

Hahaha, I noticed that too. Actually, I personally feel that for GUNTO on Yahoo, we should be cautious about the Fukuoka & Osaka landing certificates during the Reiwa era and the Osaka landing certificates during the Heisei era. It seems that these two places have relatively lax management, and counterfeit products from overseas can always obtain certificates in these two locations

[KungFooey]

1 hour ago, Sam Smith said:

Hahaha, I noticed that too. Actually, I personally feel that for GUNTO on Yahoo, we should be cautious about the Fukuoka & Osaka landing certificates during the Reiwa era and the Osaka landing certificates during the Heisei era. It seems that these two places have relatively lax management, and counterfeit products from overseas can always obtain certificates in these two locations

Wow! Well spotted Sam! I'll be looking much more carefully at blades registered in those two prefectures from now on.

 

Plus, I was just looking more closely at the sword which is the subject of the OP and the totally clean nakago appeared unnatural to me - so I enlarged one of the photos.

It's the first time I have ever seen a signature chiseled after the nakago-ana has been drilled (obvious from the burr on the side of the hole). 🤔

[Sam Smith]

On 2/10/2025 at 3:09 PM, KungFooey said:

哇！发现很好的山姆！从现在开始，我将更仔细地研究在这两个县注册的刀片。

 

另外，我只是更仔细地观察了 OP 的主题剑，完全干净的 nakago 对我来说似乎不自然 - 所以我放大了其中一张照片。

这是我第一次看到在 nakago-ana 钻孔后凿出的签名（从孔侧面的毛刺可以明显看出）。🤔

Great find! It's obvious that they first considered the compatibility of this fake before engraving the inscription, which is the reverse of the normal procedure.

[PNSSHOGUN]

The sword in question sold at auction for a rather eye watering sum, no doubt helped by the NTHK papers. Some don't hold any organisation in particularly high regard when it comes to Gendai, as there have been many cases of rather suspect swords receiving papers in the past. Perhaps there was other supporting provenance we are unaware of that unequivocally proves this was owned by Captain Ariga....

https://www.invaluab...df2322bbd8796b8eddf2

There is further discussion here: